


At Home

by Inner Voice (inner_v0ice)



Category: Gokusen - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-25
Updated: 2007-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-25 09:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1642985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inner_v0ice/pseuds/Inner%20Voice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dinner at the Ooedo House</p>
            </blockquote>





	At Home

**Author's Note:**

> Oddly enough, this story is for the Shin character request, but was inspired by the requested details for the Kumiko character request. ^_^;
> 
> Written for Cyn

 

 

Dinner at the Ooedo House was always lively, and the presence of Sawada Shin tonight did nothing to stifle the family's energy. He was a familiar guest by now, and everyone looked forward to the occasions when Kumiko randomly dragged him home with her, declaring that he was wasting away from eating too much instant ramen and that he was clearly in need of a good home-cooked meal . (She said it was motherly instinct, but her grandfather had his own private, amused doubts about that.) The men of the Ooedo House just plain liked Shin--he was real tough for a kid, and he had good manners too, not like most of the disrespectful little punks these days. And most of all, he was clearly loyal to Ojou, who was the second-most important person in the world after the boss. Someone like that deserved a welcome at the family table.

\-----

Despite the fact that Yamaguchi was right--this food _was_ about ten times better than what he usually bought himself--Shin's mind was only half on his meal tonight. Most of his attention was on the others around the table, the gangsters talking and eating and scuffling and, inexplicably, welcoming him in their midst. This was only about the fifth time that Yamaguchi had brought him here, but somehow it already seemed like an ordinary, regular thing to have dinner with her yakuza family.

Maybe it was because these men had showed him more welcome and approval in the few months since he'd met them than his father had showed in his entire life. And dinner at the Ooedo House couldn't have been more different from dinner at his parents' house. Dinners back there had been silent and strained, in the cold white quiet dining room; the only talk had been the occasional inquiry from his father about grades and schoolwork, which Natsumi (and Shin, once upon a time when he had cared) answered with tight, nervous smiles. Dinnertime here was full of talk and friendly arguments. The warm dark wood of the table and walls, the smell of good hot food, and the easy sincerity of the smiles around him all combined into a feeling, an impression--perhaps this was what _home_ was supposed to feel like.

Suddenly, there was a noise of running footsteps from the courtyard outside, and then up the steps into the house. The footsteps stopped outside the dining room, and the door panel slid quickly aside to reveal two men kneeling respectfully.

"Boss!" one burst out. "There's trouble--a couple'a punks from Tenkai--"

Kuroda-san and Wakamatsu were immediately all business, frowning and conferring with each other about territory rights and upsetting important alliances.

"Grandpa!" Yamaguchi hissed, jerking her head meaningfully in Shin's direction. "I think--"

Kuroda-san waved her concerns away, smiling briefly at her. "It's all right, Kumiko." He turned back to Wakamatsu and their discussion.

Yamaguchi was clearly stunned, blinking silently at her grandfather with a funny little "o" of surprise frozen on her face. Shin was pretty stunned, himself...they were willing to talk business with him, an outsider, sitting right there?

The one with the slicked-back hair--Sugawara-san, was it?--leaned across the table towards Shin and began to explain in a conspiratorial whisper about Ooedo's alliance with Tenkai and about the cocky Tenkai youngsters who had been making trouble lately. After a moment of uncertain surprise, Shin met his eyes and began to listen intently, taking in every word. If these men had, for whatever strange reason, chosen to trust him as if he were one of their own, who was he to question their generosity? He would just continue to enjoy it, this feeling of being at home. 

 


End file.
